Exploring the Interests and Enthusiasms of Sturgis Charter Public School ~ International Baccalaureate for All

Creative Ventures (Fall 2011)

Welcome to Sturgis Creative Ventures and Performing Art

In additionto providing news about Sturgis art, creative writing and performing arts Creative Ventures is also a forum for creative writers, artists, actors and musicians in the Sturgis community. Entries for this column are selected by a faculty committee of literature, art and music aficionados.

Creative Writing and Art

Selected creative writing and art entries appear here and will be considered for The Sturgian, published once a year at Sturgis East since 2009. The Sturgian was established by Gretchen R.S. Buntschuh, a faculty member who loved poetry and who wanted students to have a forum in which to express themselves.

Contributions to this column will also be selected by The Zephyr, the Sturgis West literary journal. We are hoping to publish our first issue this December-January. Included will be: poetry, stories, photographs, paintings and other creative output of the Sturgis West community.

Revisions/The creative process

Scrap that sentence

This one’s (is) better.

How best to convey my message?

Second draft

This one IS better!

but still far from don

this draft is closer to the one.

Third draft

Thoughts? Do I want a rhyme scheme (seem)?

like

A

B

A

B

C

D

C

D

Or maybe just in prose?

Could Seem…better

I suppose

Am I getting my message across?

*hand to someone to read*

Kevin Fazinna

Insomnia

Turn away the selfish kiss
of sleep and ash-tinged lips,
Into that sober crematorium
where visions unpolluted by the waking
can seize the waking dead.

The static statis of twilight, and
Persiflage through the silence.
My heaviness
are steeped in the cauldron of morning.

Restless thoughts where pillows lie
Wine to quell a restless mind.
Reined in by thoughts of fate,
Restless I watch the night-

And I begin my hours of wait
Drawn under the silver-speckled coat
of the dark and hollow sky;
To quiet wild thoughts and bloodshot eyes.

Give me the quickest drug, the morphine of dreams
To a deep and numbing sleep.
Suspend my conscious, take me away
To a gentle abyss and a strange dismay.

Anna Campbell (Class of 2014)

Winter Love

I want your winter love.

Frozen earth, grey and brown and covered in ice,

yielding only to the tentative caress of spring.

Your cutting wind, ignorant of defiant down or fleece is honest.

I long for the ache of fingers frozen by your demeanor.

The painful thaw of once-numb noses and earlobes approaches,

but I do not welcome your melt.

Heat brings passion, and passion is trouble.

I prefer a frigid furtive courtship that does not bend without breaking.

The icicle romance has rules and guidelines.

It leaves no room for questions.

You are a silent flurry as the sun rises, soft, still, and at peace.

You are the shiver flickering over my skin.

You are the snow drift on my step that invites itself in with every bladed breeze.

The summer lust is weak. It is open and indefensible,

a chaotic free-for-all without limits.

There is no gravity is the estival ardors.

Because there is no fragility, there is no permanence.

Too emotionless, it slips away

without so much as the hint of time passing.

Your grey sky varies with the coming and going of the sun,

resentfully offering shorter days and longer nights.

Those deliciously heavy clouds explode lightly and turn away,

frosty and winded, to bless too-warm climates.

Do not leave me, my winter love.

The tinges of spring need not touch here.

Adeline Banker-Johnson (Class of 2011)

A wind has blown the leaves away

A wind has blown the leaves away
the sky away and all the tears away
finally it was December.

Those haunting hanging leaves

clinging

only in memory of you.

They fell
one by
lonely one.

And with each descent
to the cold hard ground
a part of you was buried.

It seemed autumn would never end.

But now all that is left are the trees
the trees
heaving with every breath of the glorious
screaming wind.

(in homage to ee cummings)

by an anonymous poet at Sturgis West

Music

The Music Dept. will present its annual Winter Concert on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Federated Church on Main St. in Hyannis. The program will feature music groups from both the East and the West campus including all the choirs and jazz ensembles from both schools.The Sturgis East Music advisory will perform a medley of holiday favorites. Music selections in the other groups will range from Broadway to jazz, and Classical to folk music.

In addition, a shorter version of the concert will be performed the same day from 8:30-9:30. Teachers from both schools can bring their classes if they reserve space in advance.

Theatre

Coming Soon!

Sturgis Theatre Arts Guild of Entertainers (S.T.A.G.E.) is performing the hit comedy-farce RUMORS, by Neil Simon on Friday December 16th at 7:00 PM, Saturday December 17th at 7:00 PM and Sunday December 18th at 2:00 PM. This hilarious play will have the audience roaring in their seats. The cast and crew have been working hard since the beginning of September to put the performance on without a hitch. This year, we have an amazing set designer, Art Devine (father of a current Sturgis Freshman) who loves building sets and has worked for Broadway productions in the past. We are also at a new location- The Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster, MA. It is a bit of a trek, but SO worth it! Tickets are $10.00 or $5.00 for students and seniors. You won’t want to miss it!